Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston team up in Andy Tennant’s new comedy, “The Bounty Hunter,” which follows the fated matching of a divorced couple struggling to do their jobs.
Butler plays Milo Boyd, an on-the-job bounty hunter living the not-so-wonderful life chasing down parole jumpers for a never-steady paycheck. He is given the assignment of his dreams — to chase down and turn in his ex-wife on a bond.
Nicole Hurley, played by Aniston, is a journalist rising through the ranks by devoting her entire life to work. Having been summoned to traffic court for an incident involving a police officer, Hurley skips out of her hearing and the judge revokes her bail.
On the run from the law and chasing down her snitch, Hurley concludes that recent police officers’ stories about a recent suicide are not adding up. Certain foul play is involved, Hurley gets in too deep and it is up to Boyd to save her.
Struggling to protect Hurley as he takes her back to jail, Boyd realizes the full weight of their situation as the couple is forced to a bed and breakfast from the past, to work through their issues in order to stay alive now.
Based on a rather fun premise, “Bounty Hunter” is a delightful comedy of awkward meetings. A wildly destroyed marriage brought back together by the interaction of law enforcement and reckless driving. This film will brighten your day with its over the top antagonism.
While well-directed, the movie seemed to lack a special characteristic about it to set it apart from other romantic comedies of its time. The movie was fairly predictable and without the power of its main stars, it would have been a letdown.
Romantic comedies, having shared a generally similar structure in the past few years, all pull toward mediocrity without an above-par idea to separate them from the pack. With a unifying theme undermining these movies, it makes the director’s job more difficult in portraying a unique point of view. This movie lacked such a sub-story and without such, I believe it falls below the expectations I had going in.
While good for some laughs, the movie leaves you feeling average and a little less rich in the books. But if you are a fan of Aniston or Butler, it might be worth seeing.